{"id":1948,"date":"2026-04-03T10:02:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:02:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:02:32","slug":"southampton-vs-arsenal-paul-merson-explains-why-fa-cup-fixture-is-so-key-for-mikel-arteta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1948","title":{"rendered":"Southampton vs Arsenal: Paul Merson explains why FA Cup fixture is so key for Mikel Arteta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>At A Glance:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Arsenal get back to action this weekend as they face Southampton in the FA Cup.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019ll be their first match since losing 2-0 to Manchester City.<\/li>\n<li>Paul Merson has issued a stern warning to Mikel Arteta ahead of their trip to St. Mary\u2019s.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>After an unusual international break for Arsenal, which saw a handful of players return from their respective duties, they return to action on Saturday with an FA Cup quarter-final tie against Southampton. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be the first time that Mikel Arteta\u2019s men are back on the pitch after fluffing their first chance at silverware by losing 2-0 to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>Still top of the Premier League and also in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the Gunners\u2019 three-pronged pursuit of trophies lives on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More: <\/strong>Arsenal suffer huge transfer blow in pursuit of \u00a387m Gabriel Martinelli replacement candidate<\/p>\n<p>But Southampton will prove to be a tricky side to beat given how well they\u2019ve fared under the stewardship of Tonda Eckert \u2013 and ex-Arsenal man Paul Merson has explained why winning is so vital for Arteta.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Paul Merson issues Arteta stern warning before FA Cup clash with Southampton<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Thanks to a number of players \u2013 from Declan Rice to Gabriel Magalhaes \u2013 returning to N5 from international duty, it remains to be seen how Arteta will approach the cup tie on the south coast.<\/p>\n<p>Without some of his strongest players, the Premier League champions-elect may struggle more than many would have expect. <\/p>\n<p>Merson is one of those people as, in his <em>Sportskeeda<\/em> column, the former Highbury legend wrote: \u201cIt\u2019s a difficult game for Arsenal\u00a0because a lot of their players have returned from their national team squads with fitness issues. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey could be forced to field a patched-up line-up against Southampton in the FA Cup on Saturday. The way Southampton are playing, I expect them to give Arsenal a strong challenge. They have been decent at home and although Arsenal are favourites, I still believe this game is a tricky banana skin fixture.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/esmeuXQpDUeI-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-133979\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/esmeuXQpDUeI-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/esmeuXQpDUeI-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/esmeuXQpDUeI-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/03\/esmeuXQpDUeI.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAfter having lost the Carabao Cup final to Manchester City, image Arsenal being force to field a weakened team here and then losing this game. All of a sudden, you have serious pressure on you when you face Sporting because just 45 bad minutes in that game will force you to be up against it right away!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo this is a humungous game and week ahead for Arsenal. They face Bournemouth in the league next weekend, which is not exactly a \u2018give-me\u2019 fixture at this point in the season,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/news-paul-merson-predicts-manchester-city-vs-liverpool-fa-cup-quarter-final-fixtures\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the 58-year-old continued<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArsenal need a win in this game and to get them back on track. I expected them to get it even though it\u2019s still a tough contest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merson then predicted that Arsenal will reign victorious in a 2-0 win over the Championship outfit, though he is way of the threat they pose against a potentially-rotated Gunners side. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How are Arsenal going to set up against Southampton?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Are Arteta\u2019s Arsenal depleted as they seem heading into this weekend\u2019s fixture? That is something that will remain unknown until the Spanish tactician\u2019s pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n<p>But ReadArsenal have predicted that Kepa Arrizabalaga will start in between the sticks despite his high-profile error at Wembley against City.<\/p>\n<p>Ben White and Myles Lewis-Skelly are likely to flank Cristhian Mosquera and Riccardo Calafiori to complete Arsenal\u2019s four-man defence.<\/p>\n<p>With Rice potentially out of action, Christian Norgaard could be placed at the fulcrum of midfield with Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz operating just ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p>Moving out wide, Max Dowman could be offered the chance to dazzle from the off with Gabriel Martinelli on the other wing. Gabriel Jesus \u2013 who is rumoured with a summer move away \u2013 could start up top.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At A Glance: Arsenal get back to action this weekend as they face Southampton in the FA Cup. It\u2019ll be their first match since losing 2-0 to Manchester City. Paul Merson has issued a stern warning to Mikel Arteta ahead of their trip to St. Mary\u2019s. After an unusual international break for Arsenal, which saw [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}